Hi guys, my daughter Samantha has a year 11 PE assignment on "All professional athletes should be tested for performance enhanching drugs" and we would appreciate it if you could answer a few questions on the subject by this weekend, as another source didnt eventuate, and we would like 20 to 30 responses.

Thanks.

1. Which sport do you participate in and at what level?

2. Have you ever been drug tested yourself?

3. Do you feel that drug testing is an invasion of privacy?

4. Do you believe that drug testing makes the competition more fair? If so, how?

5. What is your view on performance enhancing drugs?

6. What is your opinion on ALL professional athletes being tested for performance enhancing drugs?

1. Cycling, club/amateur level
2. No
3. No - we all know that we might be tested when we sign up.
4. Yes. It lessens the chances that some competitors using performance enhancing drugs to gain an unfair advantage.
5. When there is a lot of money and prestige at stake, some people will do anything to get ahead, and performance enhancing drugs is one of those things. Like any other form of cheating in sport, it needs to be policed, particularly because of the potential dangers to athlete's health.
6. I think its a good thing. Its just something that a sport needs to do in order to maintain that everyone is playing by the rules.
7. Only if there is evidence that there is a problem with drugs being used to gain an unfair advantage. In some sports there may be no way to enhance performance using drugs, or the pay off isn't big enough to do so.

1. Cycling - Elite/State level
2. Yes x3
3. Yes - blood tests are fine, but having someone stand there watching you take a piss with your pants around your ankles is not much fun, and being able to rock up to your home unannounced to do a drug test is a definite invasion of privacy
4. Yes - probably deters some people and catches out those that do cheat, meaning the playing field is (hopefully) more equal
5. All performance enhancing drugs should be banned but care needs to be taken as to the definition of a performance enhancing drug and the level to which taking a substance is deemed as performance enhancing. Many 'dietary' suplements - protein powder, creatine etc. could be argued to be performance enhancing products but are not banned. Eating bananas could also be considered performance enhancing so where do you draw the line? You'd be hard pressed to find any professional athlete these days that gets by on a healthy diet of your 5 major food groups.
6. I would've thought most professional sports these days test for performance enhancing drugs - some sports (like cycling) are serious about their testing and act on positive results. They are not shy on naming and shaming athletes that test positve, even at an amateur level. Others sports, like the AFL with their 3-strikes policy, are a bit of a joke and would rather sweep potential problems with performance enhancing drugs under the carpet.
7. I don't think all sports necessitate drug testing, at least not at an amateur level. I was going to say a sport like lawn bowls could probably do without it, but by the same token, if there was some sort of artificial substance that you could take that gave you a steady hand, calmed your nerves and increased eye/hand co-ordination and gave you an edge over your banana eating competetior, then why shouldn't you be tested for it, particularly if there was a Commonwealth Games Gold medal up for grabs? Peformance enhancing drugs are not neccessarily just about anabolic steriods, EPO and other drugs that increase strength or endurance.

4. If drug testing is carried out impartially and by a body that is independent of the sporting body then I would think in theory the competition would be more fair. Hopefully it would identify the athletes taking drugs regardless of their position or influence in the sport.

5. Performance enhancing drugs have more impact than the media represents. The drugs are obtained illegally and are in high demand making the trade very lucrative and the consequences of this creates underground trafficking which is probably not dissimilar to the recreational drug trafficking.

Performance enhancing drugs are not only popular among elite athletes but also at the amateur or domestic level which has been recently demonstrated in South Australia. For this reason I believe that the reasons behind taking PED's amount to more than just the potential income and believe further study could be done to determine the reasons why athletes go down this path.

6. If an athlete makes a living out his or her sport, it should be a legitimately obtained income. Taking drugs to be successful in a sport amounts to fraud so yes, all professional athletes should be tested.

7. Wherever there is evidence or risk of athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, there should be testing.

1. Which sport do you participate in and at what level?
Cycling-National
2. Have you ever been drug tested yourself?
no
3. Do you feel that drug testing is an invasion of privacy?
Yes, but a necceary evil
4. Do you believe that drug testing makes the competition more fair? If so, how?
Yes. Although doping may never be eliminated from sports, any detterent is a good thing. Testing reduces the number of people who dope, and those that don't take the same risks as they did pre testing. Hence it is better for those who resist the temptation

5. What is your view on performance enhancing drugs?
They are a general blight on all sports.

6. What is your opinion on ALL professional athletes being tested for performance enhancing drugs?
Most definately, though the costs can be prohibitive. People make careers out of sport, and as there are only so many pro spots available, it should not only be the best who are scrutinised.

7. Do you feel that drug testing should be carried out in all sports?
Yes, otherwise the sports which do test can be seen as dirty as they have positive results.

4. Do you believe that drug testing makes the competition more fair? If so, how?

Yes. It is against the rules of the sport, and can be used to gain an unfair advantage.

5. What is your view on performance enhancing drugs?

I find the whole issue very interesting, from both a scientific and psychological perspective. Personally I don't approve of the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport.

6. What is your opinion on ALL professional athletes being tested for performance enhancing drugs?

Would be great in a perfect world, but hardly practical. Unfortunately the issue of monitoring/control/punishment is a very grey area, and it is difficult to establish set black and white rules based on scientific limits etc. But overall I think harsher punishments, more testing and continual research into detection is required.